Two Peculiar Travel Business Decisions
Two small marketing observations I made recently:
Wired Temples pointed me at this new, slightly dodgy travel site called ParadiseMalta.com.
Their slogan is “are you just a tourist or a traveler?” And yet when you visit the site, check out the photograph they’re using in their main banner:
Gah. Yeah, that beach isn’t busy. No self-respecting ‘traveller’ (that looks like an interesting article) would consider that “paradise”. Marketing lesson: your talk must match your walk.
The second one just kind of amused me. We asked for a referral to a travel agent here in Gozo. We don’t normally use them, but we’re trying to optimize a short trip to Morocco, and had some questions. We got a reference to a local company called “Links Travel”. Is there a harder name to find in Google? Who knows, maybe they were founded before the Internet. If so, it’s time to consider a rebranding.
May 24th, 2007 at 8:43 am
it’s possible that they know their own market better than you do, darren. so, it could be the case that they’re selling to people who hate the word tourist but (secretly) like to do all the touristy things, like hang out on beaches with a lot of other people and stay at hotels where they can get the same food they have back home.
the website might be following a different (more important?) rule of marketing: know your market.
May 24th, 2007 at 11:01 am
JD: It could be, but if that were the case I’d just have avoided both words (tourist and traveller) altogether, so as to not offend anybody.
That’s not a good option, of course, from a marketing perspective, because it’s usually a good idea to narrow the field.
May 24th, 2007 at 11:44 am
A good travel agent is Globalair Travel. It’s in Malta I know but they are very efficient. Their address is San Michel Flats, St George’s Road, St. Julians.
Time for a trip to the big island I guess!
May 24th, 2007 at 10:47 pm
A decent article on the website you mentioned is:
http://www.paradisemalta.com/mediterranean-best-kept-secret.htm
It was written by Tanja Cilia she’s a Times of Malta columnist, and a good one at that!
May 25th, 2007 at 6:30 am
Hate that whole ‘tourist’ vs ‘traveller’ distinction. We’re all tourists, regardless of where we travel in the world,as the first article notes. Toting a backpack instead of a suitcase doesn’t automatically make you a cooler person; nor does searching for somewhere away from the crowds. Although I have to say, that beach in the picture would be hell on wheels for me!
May 25th, 2007 at 9:45 pm
My strategy for finding Maltese companies is to look them up in the phone book and then google with their phone number.
(go to maltacom.com, and choose “Directory Enquiries” from the left-hand column. enter your search parameters, and then click on “fixed” to search for land lines, and “mobile” to search for mobile phone numbers)
This strategy didn’t turn up a website for Links Travel, but another website lists their phone number with a referral to “cruise specialists”.